Thomson

It’s a heck of a way to run a pre-election campaign. On the eve of an expected election, politicians usually spend their time playing up good news, downplaying the bad, shaking hands and kissing babies.

Despatie takes gold in 1-metre springboard

Matthew Mitcham (silver) of Australia, Alexandre Despatie (gold) of Canada and Scott Robertson (bronze) of Australia pose with the medals won in the Men's 1m Springboard Final at the Dr. S.P. Mukherjee Aquatics Complex during day seven of the Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games on October 10, 2010 in Delhi, India.

Photograph by: Adam Pretty
, Getty

DELHI, India — From the beginning, the numbers on the resume have been mind-boggling for Canadian diving legend Alexandre Despatie.

After all, the Montrealer stunned the diving world as a 13-year-old boy, winning gold in the 10-metre tower competition in 1998 at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Well, 12 years and three Games later, Despatie remains a fixture atop the podium at the diving tank. He won gold on Sunday in the one-metre springboard event, his ninth Commonwealth Games medal, his seventh gold.

Thus he became the first Canadian in Games history to collect as many as seven gold, moving ahead of swimmer Graham Smith and rhythmic gymnast Alexandra Orlando.

If this is the last Commonwealth Games for Despatie, as he has suggested, then he will go out the way he came in, setting uniquely high standards, setting himself apart.

He may well add more medals to the collection, too, because he competes Monday in the three-metre springboard, his best event, and will team up with Ruben Ross of Regina in the three-metre synchro springboard competition on Tuesday.

Despatie amassed 468.15 points in the final round of six dives to defeat Matthew Mitcham of Australia for gold on Sunday, defending one of the three titles he won in Melbourne in ’06. He also won both one- and three-metre springboard events in ’02 in Manchester, England.

“I felt really good mentally and physically,” Despatie said. “I think that after my second dive, I was in a good zone, I was well warmed up and I was focused.”

It showed. Despatie was actually trailing Mitcham, albeit by less than two points, after the first two dives. But he was dialed it in on his third dive, a backward 2 1/2 somersault in the tuck position and led comfortably from that dive onward.

“It’s always like that, especially in men’s diving,” Despatie said of shaking off a couple of ordinary efforts to take command of the competition. “You can’t judge the competition in the first two or three dives.

“It takes six dives and it’s usually tight right to the end.”

For Despatie, the one-metre event is a sort of “cross trainer” for the three-metre springboard competition that is his bread and butter.

But for the man who is the first diver to hold world championship titles on all three boards (one- and three-metre springboard and tower), winning medals never gets routine. Certainly not at the Commonwealth Games, which launched his career.

You won’t hear Despatie musing about the relevance of the Commonwealth Games, or making suggestions about how they should or should not re-brand themselves.

“These Games are special to me because of my history,” Despatie said. “We all know that some of the best divers in the world are not present.

“But still, there is always a great challenge in every event. There’s always going to be a competitor, there’s always going to be someone who is going to be breathing down your neck to put some pressure on you, and that was the case today.

“That’ll be the case (Monday) as well, and that’ll be the case for every event. That’s what I love about competing. And that’s why these Games are still important, even if there are fewer divers, it’s still a preparation towards bigger Games and towards bigger competitions.

“In my personal situation, when I was very young I had the chance to compete at this level. I know that my 10-metre event in ’98 kind of overshadows the three-metre, but I also did three-metre (in 1998), which was a step for me to get to where I am today.”

Where Despatie is today is 12-year international diving veteran who remains a young man, just 25, an athlete who has won everything there is to win in his sport except for one thing — he has not won an Olympic gold medal.

He does have a pair of silver medals that he won in the three-metre springboard competitions at the ’04 Games in Athens and again in 2008 in Beijing. Indeed, with that ’04 silver, Despatie became the first Canadian man to win an Olympic diving medal, period.

So, if the wildly accomplished Despatie showed up in Delhi to win gold, it’s because the Commonwealth Games remain a step toward the podium he still burns to stand on top of at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London.

For all his numbers and achievements, something is missing.

“That’s one of the reasons I’m still here,” Despatie said. “An Olympic gold medal is still my dream, it’s still my objective and it has been for a long time.

“I’m going to give everything I have to (achieve it). Whatever happens in London, I want to know that I gave it all I had to realize my dream.”

Earlier Sunday, Jennifer Abel of Laval, Que., and Emilie Heymans of St. Lambert, Que., won gold in the women’s three-metre synchro springboard event.

Matthew Mitcham (silver) of Australia, Alexandre Despatie (gold) of Canada and Scott Robertson (bronze) of Australia pose with the medals won in the Men's 1m Springboard Final at the Dr. S.P. Mukherjee Aquatics Complex during day seven of the Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games on October 10, 2010 in Delhi, India.

We encourage all readers to share their views on our articles and blog posts. We are committed to maintaining a lively but civil forum for discussion, so we ask you to avoid personal attacks, and please keep your comments relevant and respectful. If you encounter a comment that is abusive, click the "X" in the upper right corner of the comment box to report spam or abuse. We are using Facebook commenting. Visit our FAQ page for more information.